This is why we can't have nice things
Aug. 27th, 2010 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesI've got a lot of posts I want to make about vary and sundry things, but right now I'm on a streak of productivity and creativity that I don't want to break.
That said, I kinda had to get this letter out of my system. Trigger warnings for discussions of rape.
Dear Author Who I Will Not Name,
I recently (read: this morning) came upon the sample chapter of your paranormal romance novel on your website. Cover art was decent, the description sounded good, you had a blurb from another author I've liked in the past. So, I decided to give you a chance.
And, wow, did you make me regret it.
Here's the thing. I get having morally ambiguous characters and even morally ambiguous heroes. I think when done well, it's a wonderful way to tell a challenging, interesting story. So I don't have a problem with heroes that don't always act like boyscouts, who fuck up or make the wrong decisions or just plain old don't get it. I'm okay with flawed characters.
What I do have a problem with is when this hero, who I'm supposed to at least want to read enough about to endure an entire novel with him as main character, walks into a room and after staring at a woman who is bound in a filthy factory, waiting to be raped and killed, and doing nothing starts thinking about the swell of her breasts and how it must be cold in the factory because he can see her nipples as she awaits the return of her attacker who is coming to rape and kill her like she's not a human being at all.
Do you get that having your hero become sexually attracted to a woman in this situation and ruminating on her lovely features pretty much overshoots moral ambiguity and heads right into Evil, Creepy, Rape-Loving Bastard territory? I can't know your intentions, but I can know your results as far as my reading goes.
And the results were that I had to stop then and hit the back button because a) I wanted to continue to be able to eat my breakfast and I couldn't at that point because I was literally getting sick to my stomach and b) I just don't have the mental capacity to deal with this crap from authors who should know better. Not anymore.
There is a lot of difference between morally ambiguous and fucking creepy. When you're a man who, seeing in actual woman in a real situation being really assaulted, gets aroused? You're evil. I make no apologies. I'm not talking about consensual fetishes or anything here (those are a whole other ballgame). I'm talking about the real deal, which is what this male hero was observing while getting hot under the collar.
Which may indicate that you, dear author, don't seem to know where that bright, clear line is or how to respect it so that the story you're telling is one I actually want to read, rather than one that puts me off the first meal of the day and makes me regret ever having happened upon your works.
I write this not just because of your particular book, but because it seems like the paranormal romance genre (in general, many specific authors are just fine) didn't get the "rape is actually very bad and horrible and not just an interesting plot device" memo, and even worse? Apparently they need a memo for that because it seems like so many authors don't get that rape really happens, to real women. These women are not characters, their trauma is not a convenient, interesting situation in which to show them off. It's a degrading, traumatic, deeply painful violation.
Given the statistics, which range from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3 women (depending on what at-risk groups they may belong to) being victims of sexual assault, it's a good chance that many of your readers or potential readers are themselves actual survivors of such things. Maybe they weren't chained up somewhere, maybe their circumstances were different, but it happened to them. It was real and terrible and it happened. And given that fact, you opened your tale with a male character ogling an assault victim as though that's okay, as though later on if he's really nice to her and falls in love, that can be forgiven.
It isn't that you shouldn't write about rape. It's that you shouldn't write about it badly, or treat it as a casual tool in your belt of "Making the Reader Care". It's not a casual tool. It's not casual. It's a truly horrific thing that too many real-life human beings have faced. Some survive their experiences. Some don't live to tell their tales. Some die anonymously, buried in mass graves or left rotting somewhere or dumped in abandoned places and we're all too eager to let them stay anonymous, to let them be nameless, non-real. Whether they're victims of a war or a killer or some other kind of abuse, society has given us ample instruction on how to view them as psuedo-human and unimportant.
It isn't just these books you and so many other write that are the problem. If it was this genre alone, the world would be a far better place. It's a much bigger problem. It's that these books reflect and project that dehumanizing influence of society's dominant messages, the ones that have infiltrated everything from books to ads to the language we use on a daily basis. They echo the refrains of rape culture's song without ever stopping to question or to challenge that refrain as though it might be something truly disgusting, as though the victims and survivors of it aren't due respect and careful consideration by those using their experiences to pique the interest of and titillate an audience in order to shill paperbacks.
Here's the thing, paranormal romance writers (I count myself among you, though I'm unpublished as of yet): heroines don't need to be traumatized just so the hero (or the audience) will care about her and she can look tough. Heroines can be interesting without ever being assaulted and needing to be rescued. In fact, they can be the ones doing the rescuing, and that's also very interesting and exciting. They can be tough without having to be raped. Tough isn't just about winning a fight or narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. Sometimes being a tough, strong person is about moral decisions and selflessness and dealing with other kinds of difficulties in life, overcoming obstacles, being willing to grow as a human being. And that's interesting all on it's own. No rape needed.
But trauma does not automatically make someone more interesting or important, it just makes them more traumatized. How they deal with that trauma may or may not make them interesting, but the fact that it happened at all doesn't. Because trauma is not exciting and captivating, it's just tragic and horrible and real. But unfortunately, we live in a society that is fascinated with making ornaments of the pain and suffering of women, a society that has sexualized and beautified our trauma because somehow, it finds the idea of a woman in danger, a woman being hurt not disturbing and deeply unsettling, but aesthestically pleasing and acceptable and erotic.
It's the end result of centuries of rape culture and oppression that we have these ideas, but if we're ever going to get rid of them, then we need to recognize these facts and face them head on, challenge them rather than thoughtlessly repeating them.
You never actually have to have a plot where someone gets raped. So the decision to include it is just that: a decision. So when you make these decisions, understand that they're important ones, and they're ones that other people will be watching, ones that will in ways small and great be permeating into the brains of your readers, even if they don't realize it. Especially if they don't realize it.
So make those decisions more carefully and with the survivors and victims of rape at the center of your decision making. That's all I'm asking. Because when you don't, when you use rape and trauma as devices, tools, as means to an end, it shows. And it hurts.
Sincerely and saddened,
Me
That said, I kinda had to get this letter out of my system. Trigger warnings for discussions of rape.
Dear Author Who I Will Not Name,
I recently (read: this morning) came upon the sample chapter of your paranormal romance novel on your website. Cover art was decent, the description sounded good, you had a blurb from another author I've liked in the past. So, I decided to give you a chance.
And, wow, did you make me regret it.
Here's the thing. I get having morally ambiguous characters and even morally ambiguous heroes. I think when done well, it's a wonderful way to tell a challenging, interesting story. So I don't have a problem with heroes that don't always act like boyscouts, who fuck up or make the wrong decisions or just plain old don't get it. I'm okay with flawed characters.
What I do have a problem with is when this hero, who I'm supposed to at least want to read enough about to endure an entire novel with him as main character, walks into a room and after staring at a woman who is bound in a filthy factory, waiting to be raped and killed, and doing nothing starts thinking about the swell of her breasts and how it must be cold in the factory because he can see her nipples as she awaits the return of her attacker who is coming to rape and kill her like she's not a human being at all.
Do you get that having your hero become sexually attracted to a woman in this situation and ruminating on her lovely features pretty much overshoots moral ambiguity and heads right into Evil, Creepy, Rape-Loving Bastard territory? I can't know your intentions, but I can know your results as far as my reading goes.
And the results were that I had to stop then and hit the back button because a) I wanted to continue to be able to eat my breakfast and I couldn't at that point because I was literally getting sick to my stomach and b) I just don't have the mental capacity to deal with this crap from authors who should know better. Not anymore.
There is a lot of difference between morally ambiguous and fucking creepy. When you're a man who, seeing in actual woman in a real situation being really assaulted, gets aroused? You're evil. I make no apologies. I'm not talking about consensual fetishes or anything here (those are a whole other ballgame). I'm talking about the real deal, which is what this male hero was observing while getting hot under the collar.
Which may indicate that you, dear author, don't seem to know where that bright, clear line is or how to respect it so that the story you're telling is one I actually want to read, rather than one that puts me off the first meal of the day and makes me regret ever having happened upon your works.
I write this not just because of your particular book, but because it seems like the paranormal romance genre (in general, many specific authors are just fine) didn't get the "rape is actually very bad and horrible and not just an interesting plot device" memo, and even worse? Apparently they need a memo for that because it seems like so many authors don't get that rape really happens, to real women. These women are not characters, their trauma is not a convenient, interesting situation in which to show them off. It's a degrading, traumatic, deeply painful violation.
Given the statistics, which range from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3 women (depending on what at-risk groups they may belong to) being victims of sexual assault, it's a good chance that many of your readers or potential readers are themselves actual survivors of such things. Maybe they weren't chained up somewhere, maybe their circumstances were different, but it happened to them. It was real and terrible and it happened. And given that fact, you opened your tale with a male character ogling an assault victim as though that's okay, as though later on if he's really nice to her and falls in love, that can be forgiven.
It isn't that you shouldn't write about rape. It's that you shouldn't write about it badly, or treat it as a casual tool in your belt of "Making the Reader Care". It's not a casual tool. It's not casual. It's a truly horrific thing that too many real-life human beings have faced. Some survive their experiences. Some don't live to tell their tales. Some die anonymously, buried in mass graves or left rotting somewhere or dumped in abandoned places and we're all too eager to let them stay anonymous, to let them be nameless, non-real. Whether they're victims of a war or a killer or some other kind of abuse, society has given us ample instruction on how to view them as psuedo-human and unimportant.
It isn't just these books you and so many other write that are the problem. If it was this genre alone, the world would be a far better place. It's a much bigger problem. It's that these books reflect and project that dehumanizing influence of society's dominant messages, the ones that have infiltrated everything from books to ads to the language we use on a daily basis. They echo the refrains of rape culture's song without ever stopping to question or to challenge that refrain as though it might be something truly disgusting, as though the victims and survivors of it aren't due respect and careful consideration by those using their experiences to pique the interest of and titillate an audience in order to shill paperbacks.
Here's the thing, paranormal romance writers (I count myself among you, though I'm unpublished as of yet): heroines don't need to be traumatized just so the hero (or the audience) will care about her and she can look tough. Heroines can be interesting without ever being assaulted and needing to be rescued. In fact, they can be the ones doing the rescuing, and that's also very interesting and exciting. They can be tough without having to be raped. Tough isn't just about winning a fight or narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. Sometimes being a tough, strong person is about moral decisions and selflessness and dealing with other kinds of difficulties in life, overcoming obstacles, being willing to grow as a human being. And that's interesting all on it's own. No rape needed.
But trauma does not automatically make someone more interesting or important, it just makes them more traumatized. How they deal with that trauma may or may not make them interesting, but the fact that it happened at all doesn't. Because trauma is not exciting and captivating, it's just tragic and horrible and real. But unfortunately, we live in a society that is fascinated with making ornaments of the pain and suffering of women, a society that has sexualized and beautified our trauma because somehow, it finds the idea of a woman in danger, a woman being hurt not disturbing and deeply unsettling, but aesthestically pleasing and acceptable and erotic.
It's the end result of centuries of rape culture and oppression that we have these ideas, but if we're ever going to get rid of them, then we need to recognize these facts and face them head on, challenge them rather than thoughtlessly repeating them.
You never actually have to have a plot where someone gets raped. So the decision to include it is just that: a decision. So when you make these decisions, understand that they're important ones, and they're ones that other people will be watching, ones that will in ways small and great be permeating into the brains of your readers, even if they don't realize it. Especially if they don't realize it.
So make those decisions more carefully and with the survivors and victims of rape at the center of your decision making. That's all I'm asking. Because when you don't, when you use rape and trauma as devices, tools, as means to an end, it shows. And it hurts.
Sincerely and saddened,
Me
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 08:49 am (UTC)